Qualifications

PhD in Politics, University of Manchester, 2011

MA in International Relations, University of Manchester, 2007

Biography

Dr George Kyris joined the department of Political Science and International Studies in 2014 as a Lecturer in International and European Politics. In 2016, he was awarded a Leverhume Early Career Fellowship (2017-2020) for a project that focuses on international organisations and international conflict. Previously, he has been a Teaching Fellow at the University of Warwick, a Research Fellow at the LSE and has also taught at the University of Manchester.

His main research interests are international conflict, especially with reference to secession, unrecognised states, international organisation and debates on sovereignty. From a regional point of view, Dr Kyris’ research has focused a lot on the European Union.

Dr Kyris' list of publications includes his book 'The Europeanisation of Contested Statehood: The EU in northern Cyprus' (Routledge 2015), articles for the Journal of Common Market Studies, the British Journal of Politics and International Relations and Geopolitics (see publications) and he has also been invited to comment for international and regional media. Media availability in spoken and written English and Greek.

Research

Research interests

International conflict, secession, unrecognised states and the role of international organisations

European Union

Sovereignty

Current projects

Conflict, Statehood and Sovereignty (2017-2020, Funded by the Leverhulme Trust in the context of an Early Career Fellowship)Why do international organisations recognise some secessions but not others? How do they approach unrecognised states? What does that tell us about the way statehood is understood and what are the implications for conflict management? Drawing on debates on sovereignty and using a range of methods, this project will offer a missing conceptualisation of conflicts of sovereignty, will highlight opportunities for security promotion and suggest ways in which limitations can be overcome.

Past Projects

This project was part of the Being Human festival, which seeks to foster public engagement with humanities’ research. The project was based on interactive talks across different communities of Birmingham and triggered a thought-provoking discussion of the issue of sovereignty. It approached sovereignty as a condition that is continuously lost and found throughout the ages, from the Tudor era, during which Monarchs found themselves sovereign for the first time, to the expansion of sovereignty under the British Empire and the perceived loss of sovereignty because of European integration or globalisation. The project included guided history walks and allowed locals to see familiar places of their community through the lenses of sovereignty and its history.

LSE European Institute Fellowship

This fellowship (2013) allowed research on the role of the European Union in conflict, and particularly the example of Cyprus. Amongst the outputs of the fellowship was a research visit to the Barcelona Institute for International Studies (IBEI) and an article for the European Foreign Affairs Review.

PhD

Dr Kyris’ doctoral research (University of Manchester, 2007-2011) filled an important gap in the literature by exploring the impact the European Union has on unrecognised states, focusing in particular on the example of the TRNC in Cyprus. Outputs from this research project include Dr Kyris’ first monograph (Routledge 2015) and various articles for leading peer-reviewed journals (see also Publications).

Other activities

Membership and Editorial Positions

Higher Education Academy Fellow

Member of: Studies Association (ISA), the British International Studies Association (BISA), the Universities Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES), the UACES Brexit Network and the PSA Greek Politics Specialist Group.

Reviewer for a range of publications, including Oxford University Press, Manchester University Press Palgrave MacMillan and a range of academic journals.

Peer-reviewed Articles

Bouris, D. and Kyris, G. (2017) 'Europeanisation, Sovereignty and Contested States: The European Union in northern Cyprus and Palestine’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations

Christou,G. and Kyris, G. (2017), ‘The Impact of the Eurozone Crisis on National Foreign Policy: Enhancing Europeanization in the Case of Cyprus’, Journal of Common Market Studies, DOI: 10.1111/jcms.12557

Kyris, G. (2015) The Fifth Greek Presidency of the Council of the European Union: The Most Unlikely Captain?. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 53: 75–82

Kyris, G. (2013) ‘The Europeanisation of Contested Statehood? The EU in Kosovo and the Turkish Cypriot Administration’, Studia Diplomatica, LXVI: 1(*Selected for the international series of the European Commission Central Library)